The Two-Way

12:22 pm

Wed October 26, 2011

World Series: Decision Coming On Whether To Play Tonight

Update at 3:35 p.m. ET: MLB.com has posted the news that Game 6 of the World Series, which was scheduled for tonight in St. Louis, has been postponed to Thursday at 8:05 p.m. ET because of rainy weather.

That means Game 7, if one is needed, would be played on Friday (weather permitting).

The American League's Texas Rangers lead the National League's St. Louis Cardinals, 3 games to 2.

Our original post follows. As you'll see, there are some potential Series-changing effects because of the delay:

The weather forecast isn't very good for this evening in St. Louis, where Game 6 of the World Series between the Cardinals and Texas Rangers is supposed to start at 8:05 p.m. ET (Fox is the TV broadcaster).

Weather.com says that at game time, there's a 50 percent chance of rain and that the temperature will be 55 degrees. It's raining there right now, the website says.

According to CBS St. Louis, representatives from the teams and Major League Baseball are meeting at 2 p.m. ET to decide what to do — postpone the game now; put off the decision a little longer; or take the chance that it will be OK this evening and prepare to play. If the game does start and then has to stop because of rain, "it would resume at the point of suspension on Thursday," MLB.com says.

The Rangers lead the Series, 3 games to 2. If Game 6 isn't played tonight, and the Cardinals go on to win tomorrow, that would even the Series at 3 games each. It would also give St. Louis the chance to put the team's best pitcher — Chris Carpenter — on the mound for a decisive Game 7 on Friday.

But as St. Louis' KSDK reports, USA Today baseball writer Bob Nightengale doesn't think that would necessarily be a great advantage for the Cards. Carpenter would be pitching after only 3 days rest, not his normal 4. Rangers' ace Derek Holland would have had his full 4 days off.

As MLB.com reminds us, interruptions are "part of Series history." The longest delay was the 10-day suspension in 1989 because of the Loma Prieta earthquake that hit northern California. Both teams that year — the San Francisco Giants and the Oakland A's — were from the Bay Area.

In 1911, steady rain forced a six-day delay in the Series between the Philadelphia Athletics and New York Giants.

And in 1975, MLB.com says, three days of rainouts "ended when [the Red Sox' Carlton] Fisk's 12th-inning homer over the Green Monster ... beat the [Cincinnati] Reds and sent the Series to a Game 7."